What became of the parliamentary initiative?

A few years ago, there was not enough for a popular initiative. But there was an initiative from parliament: In 2020, National Councilor Siegenthaler submitted such a proposal, which was followed up or approved by the two responsible commissions in 2021. Summer 2022: Where is the journey heading now?

This is the title of this parliamentary initiative. The initiator Heinz Siegenthaler wants to replace the unspeakable black market with stretched products and untaxed profits by something better - with quality control, real protection of minors as well as more money for prevention. So prohibition should be lifted and hemp should be regulated sensibly.

In October 2021, the second commission had also given its approval. Then nothing happened for a few months. I was all the more eagerly awaiting the commission meeting from April 6 to 8, 2022. The official agenda only included “Further procedure”. That could mean many things…

How the discussions in the commission went in detail is subject to commission secrecy. But in its media release it says that with 13 to 6 votes and 3 abstentions it was voted for the start of the work on the elaboration of a legal text. A sub-commission is now to tackle this work in concrete terms. However, it will take another commission meeting (probably in May or June, after the editorial deadline) to give the sub-commission a detailed mandate… The actual work would probably start after the summer vacations.

Here we see how political work usually works (except in major crises): deliberately, step by step, everything takes time. So there is no defined time frame yet, nor do we know what exactly the work of the subcommission will be about.